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I'm Angela Davis, a PNW native, mom of lots of kids, and I love saving money. I'm here to help you live well on a budget by making every penny count. You'll find deals at your local stores, ways to save online, recipes, and frugal living tips and inspiration.

My Less-Than-Frugal Christmas Cards

Shared on December 1, 2009This post may contain affiliate links which means I make a small commission if you make a purchase at no additional cost to you. See the disclosure policy for more information.

Last night at 7:15 pm I remembered that the free photo card deal ended at midnight so I had to quickly take our Christmas card photo. Mind you, we were in the middle of our incredibly late dinner, 30 minutes from bedtime and I had just started pulling out everything in my cabinet.

And yes, as of this morning it’s still sitting in the middle of the floor.

I put all four kids in their “don’t we look like we have it all together” Christmas picture outfits and started our photo session. I kid you not, I took 134 shots in two different locations. The boys could not manage to look at the camera at the same time nor could they both smile at the same time. At one point Willy started licking Matthew’s head.

Can you imagine receiving this in the mail?

We did manage to get one good shot, thanks mostly to my husband who played dual roles as lighting engineer and preschool comedian. And we promised them ice cream.

After all that work, I decided I was going to forgo the free photo cards, flush large amounts of money down the toilet and order the overpriced stationary cards from Shutterfly. The ones I’ve been drooling over for years. Don’t even ask how much I paid.

Because if you can manage to get this shot at bedtime with a six year old camera and lighting from a Walmart torch lamp, I figure you can order any card you want.

What an adorable picture! I've so been there with my four kiddos too. I was right down to the wire getting my free photo cards last night too (ordering at 8:59 pm!). Thankfully my kids are older now and they totally cooperated and I ended up using the first picture I too – yay! 🙂

Not to rub salt in your wounds, but just so you know for next year-Target does a coupon with shutterfly for 12 free cards. They come with unique coupon codes, so you can use more than one by creating more accounts. I was able to get the beautiful Shutterfly cards for 5.99 in shipping. They keep them at Target's with photo centers.

Getting 4 little kids to have a great Christmas photo is very challenging, you did great! When I was 6, my twin brothers were 5, and our sis was 2, we had a disaster photo shoot at the portrait studio. The boys couldn't stop goofing off. Then the photographer told the 2-year old to scoot over (we were all sitting on the table in front of the backdrop). My sister moved over too far and FELL OFF the table! It was at least a two-foot drop and she wasn't hurt but cried and screamed and was not in any of the other photos that day. Dad got it all on video tape too, and we get a good laugh from it now!

LOL, Been there. Done that–several times! Wish I could give you hope that the annual Christmas card photo gets better as they get older, but alas, it doesn't. My 5 are mostly grown (and a couple of spouses added to the bunch) and it is the same story every year. But I will tell you that they all have funny memories of the annual event 🙂 You go girl!

I always say that if our 4 children are all smiling and looking at the camera, it was a MIRACLE! Christmas card photos have to be the biggest stressor of the season. That is why this year we are using a Halloween dress up photo! 🙂 Loved your story though, made me smile too!

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[…] beautiful photos and beautiful design, especially when it comes to Christmas cards. In fact, I was so excited (proud) of the Christmas photo I took last year, that I splurged and purchased my Christmas cards from Shutterfly. Seriously, if you can get four […]

[…] love a good photo deal. And I really like Shutterfly’s beautiful designs (remember my less-than-frugal Christmas cards?). I loved the quality of the cards I purchased and the trendy graphics and fonts (I am a font […]